As we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord, Fr Paul Gooley reads today’s Gospel from Luke (2:22-40) in which Mary and Joseph take Jesus to be presented at the Temple in Jerusalem. Fr Paul says the story of the Presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple is dominated by Simeon’s welcome, ‘a light to enlighten the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel’. It is also dominated by his warning to Mary, ‘a sword will pierce your heart’. Simeon reiterates the angel’s promise that the child would fulfil the destiny of Israel and Israel’s task to the nations. Much like any family life, the promised future included the delights of the growing, developing child, and the background of fear that the great destiny of each child may include sorrow and even heartbreak. All we know for sure is that ‘the child grew to maturity’, and that Mary ‘pondered all these things in her heart’, with Simeon’s welcome and warning in her mind.